Tuesday, June 17, 2008

'Cancer as a Disease, Not a Death Sentence'

My hope at this point is to follow the route described in this article -- hopping from therapy to therapy and living with the disease for as long as possible. There's no direct sarcoma connection in the piece, but some of the drugs directly mentioned (Gleevec) or inferred (new kidney cancer agents) are applicable to or being tested for some sub-types of soft-tissue sarcoma.

Through a better understanding of factors that distinguish cancer cells from normal ones and the development of more specific treatments that capitalize on those differences, cancers that just a decade ago would have been rapidly fatal are now being controlled for years while the patients conduct near-normal lives.

Although these cancers may never be curable, they can often be controlled for long periods by a succession of treatments. When one therapeutic approach no longer works, another one that has come along in the meantime might stop the disease from progressing, at least for a while.

Even patients whose cancers were already metastatic — spread beyond the site of origin — at the time of diagnosis are benefiting from this sequential approach....